Easy Skips director jailed for waste offences

The former director of Easy Skips (NE) has been sentenced to 904 days in custody after failing to comply with a confiscation order.

Andrew Benson and his co-director Kevin Brough were convicted for controlled waste offences in 2007, after allowing large amounts of uncontrolled waste to be deposited at the site without having the proper licence or exemption. The pile grew over a period of years, until it spilled through a broken boundary fence.

Benson and Brough were sentenced in 2009 and had £234,393 confiscated under the Proceeds of Crime Act. Benson was ordered to pay £124,393 within 12 months, or face three years in prison. Over a year later, £102,760.54 was left to pay, and he was subsequently jailed by Teesside Magistrates’ Court.

However, money held by Benson’s solicitors which were paid to offset the debt would result in a shorter prison sentence.

Brough was ordered to pay £110,000, yet the money has still not yet been paid and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.

His Honour Judge Anthony Briggs described the site as a “complete and utter mess”.

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